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Session Stories - Moments in Roleplaying (updated 6/15/2023)
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<blockquote data-quote="Nthal" data-source="post: 8901529" data-attributes="member: 6971069"><p style="text-align: center"><strong>Tears in the Dust - 1/16/2023</strong></p><p></p><p>Keryasa was in a furious state as she ran in the large hall way. It was filled with detritus of furnishings, a broken table here, a smashed chair there. The walls had dusty lumps of beast heads, now moldering into dust. Kery’s side already hurt from the girl, clawing at her ribs, and spilling her cool blood. Her mood was darker than normal as a consequence of Linda’s random actions.</p><p></p><p>To call Linda an odd duck was really missing the point. Linda was beyond eccentric, and Kery was genuinely ill at ease with the child. Her strange habits with her ‘brother,’ a small skeleton she wore like a cape, its arms wrapped around her neck like a clasps. The antics in trying to bag imaginary creatures in the middle of the fight, and then this insanity about being a gargoyle. Everyone assumed the cloak she had put on earlier was cursed and was now responsible for Linda’s behavior. But Kery wasn’t entirely convinced.</p><p></p><p>And now confoundedly, Linda had somehow turned herself invisible to Kery’s eyes and was running in the darkness, heading to who knew where. The child seemed unconcerned with danger, and even less with consequences. So, running away to fulfill some obscure need was probably a random whim that just needed to fulfil. But unfortunate for her, she was both not the sharpest blade in the armory, and not the best with understanding nuance, let alone personal safety. So, while she couldn’t be seen, she also did not keep quiet. But her maniacal laughter wasn’t what made her easy to follow. It was the puffs of dust on the worked flagstone, which announced her presence. Dust like this was a hassle to cover your own tracks, but the thought must never have crossed Linda’s mind.</p><p></p><p>What thought did, however, was a mystery. But Kery was more concerned on getting Linda back under control before she brought the temple’s denizens down on their heads. Earlier she was on the edge of smashing Linda ‘the gargoyle’s’ head on the floor, just because of the pain she caused. It would have been easy; the girl was already wounded. But instead, Claude in the shape of a squirl the size of a bear, swiped at the gargoyle Linda and killed her. It was expediency for him; cursed objects don’t stay attuned to dead things, so he killed Linda. And that had cost Kery a diamond; one she was saving to perhaps buy a cure for her curse. She didn’t know how much that would cost, but she didn’t want to be short on that day either.</p><p></p><p>Kery wasn’t trying to be quiet, the need for swiftness prevented that. So, it wasn’t hard at all to grab Linda from behind and lift the invisible girl off the ground, helpless to escape. Kery held her at arm’s length when she bared her teeth. The Dhampir was ready to slake the thirst awakened from Linda’s clawing earlier. The child continued to run in the air, unable to escape based on how Kery’s arm bounced. Kery could now feel the blood tha pumped through Linda’s small body. A web of life that felt warm and red, pumping quickly in terror. She opened her jaw and was about to draw Linda’s neck to Kery’s fangs, when she stopped.</p><p></p><p>“Gah! How did you find me!” Linda said thrashing uselessly in Keryasa’s grip. There was no hope of her escaping; her tiny body didn’t have the strength to out muscle the larger woman. And even if she did, Kery could easily catch her again and dispatch her without a challenge. But Kery stopped herself.</p><p></p><p>Linda sounded like a scared little girl. Not someone putting on a show, or someone that was drunk and surly, or even dropped at birth. Kery couldn’t see her, she could feel, not just her pounding heart, but she also felt the tiny body quiver in her hands and could hear the sniffles of a nose, overwhelmed with tears.</p><p></p><p><em>Why am I stopping? She’s going to get herself killed. She’s going to get the others killed. She’s going to get <strong>me</strong> killed.</em></p><p></p><p>Kery brows furrowed for a moment, and she thought back to the night before Linda became a gargoyle and remembered the innocent question that surprised Kery.</p><p></p><p>“Do you have a mommy?”</p><p></p><p>It had been years since she thought of her. Trapped in the brothel, she could never visit her. At the beginning of her ‘employment,’ she would sometimes she her mom on the streets below, waiting to catch a glimpse of her lost daughter. But the madame found out, and had her ruffians chase her off. Kery would then be savagely beaten with a broom handle afterwards. This went on for a number of times, until finally the madame during a particularly furious beating, threatened Kery; “If you try to wave to her again, she’ll be bait for fish on the next trawler to the Nyr Dyv.”</p><p></p><p>She never looked for her again. She stayed away from the window for years, growing paler and paler from the lack of the sun kissing her skin. She buried her sorrow and pain deep within; and tried to forget any joy of the past. And once she was free, the first thing she had done wasn’t to go to their hovel in the slums. It was to kill those same ruffians that chased her mother away and shank the madam with the broken end of that broom handle. She spent the next two tollings of the clock bell, breaking the queen of whore’s bones and repaying the kindness given to herself. She didn’t stop because her lungs burned; she no longer panted at the exertion. She didn’t stop because her heart was pounding from it either, as her heart was now still. She stopped only because she was satisfied with the results. And from her time stealing and screwing patrons taught her that results were the only thing that mattered.</p><p></p><p>She fled Greyhawk that night, fearing the reprisal of the Madame’s bosses. She fled south, not stopping until the next sunrise, and it was only then did she stop and cry in a dusty barn, at a long abandoned farm on what she lost.</p><p></p><p>“Do you have a mommy?”</p><p></p><p>Even when she met the fairy Bright and they talked, neither talked about family. Just how horrible the Witchlight Carnival was and how the madam of the “Purloined Chastity,” was even worse. But neither wanted to touch the topic of kin. And now with Bright gone, she hadn’t felt the need to talk about the past with anyone else she had met afterwards.</p><p></p><p>So why did Linda ask that question?</p><p></p><p>And why did Keryasa answer it?</p><p></p><p>She didn’t lie about the unintentional estrangement. She said more that evening than she dared to in years. In the brothel, she just lied to herself, and pretended not to have one. It was easier than the pain and longing. It was a memory hidden away in a buried chest, bound in iron, and festooned with locks sealed with molten lead. But Linda’s simple, honest, curious question smashed what barriers there were and that night, for the first time in years, she cried, her tears dripping from the ceiling and hitting the dusty floor. All about the almost forgotten woman she knew loved her, unreservedly, no matter what had befallen her. Her stealing to get them by after father disappeared changed nothing. Her being whored out every night changed nothing. And Keryasa could only imagine that her cursed self would change nothing either. Or so Kery desperately hoped.</p><p></p><p>She held Linda in the air and wondered, was Kery just fortunate to have survived? Was Linda the result when you didn’t? When despair won the battle for your mind and soul? Could have Linda’s life turned out differently? Could it still end differently? Should Kery take that honest hope away from Linda?</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><em><strong><THUMP,THUMP></strong></em></p><p></p><p>Keryasa shook and shuddered for a moment, as her heart stopped once again. It was the first time it had pulsed without drinking the blood of another that she could remember. All without that intoxicating flush, flowing throughout her body. The one made her want, made her desire, made her seek out ways to slake her lusts. But now it left behind a shadow of feeling, of sorrow and remorse. Of pity and compassion.</p><p></p><p>Of care for another.</p><p></p><p>Keryasa closed her open jaws, and felt her canines retract once again. The raw emotions still swirled inside of her, unable to hide from her thoughts. She then closed her eyes for a moment and sighed. Then as gruffly as she could Keryasa said, “Come on. Back to the others.” Holding her invisible quarry in front of her in one hand, she turned on her heel, and marched back to the group. But she did take the time to wipe the tears away, leaving behind the drops in the dust.</p><p></p><p><strong>Session Notes:</strong></p><p>Kery is still around, but Bac isn't a bard anymore (now a cleric, as the player hated the lore bard...felt useless and unengaged in combat, and now playing a bard, I get it.) The fairy Bright, has been replaced by (at the time) unrevealed aasimar Hex Blade, and Nahn the Wiser was replaced by Claude Knightly, a druid who's bar tab is legendary. Linda was herself a replacement of the crocodilian riding knight Gala'Chad, who was replacement for a fathom Warlock who died to an ogre. That doesn't even begin to decribe the madness of how the crocodile was actually a cursed dragonborn battlemaster... There was a lot of mood to try experiments, and as a result Kery was the only bit of continuity on why they were in the Temple of Elemental Evil to start with.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Nthal, post: 8901529, member: 6971069"] [CENTER][B]Tears in the Dust - 1/16/2023[/B][/CENTER] Keryasa was in a furious state as she ran in the large hall way. It was filled with detritus of furnishings, a broken table here, a smashed chair there. The walls had dusty lumps of beast heads, now moldering into dust. Kery’s side already hurt from the girl, clawing at her ribs, and spilling her cool blood. Her mood was darker than normal as a consequence of Linda’s random actions. To call Linda an odd duck was really missing the point. Linda was beyond eccentric, and Kery was genuinely ill at ease with the child. Her strange habits with her ‘brother,’ a small skeleton she wore like a cape, its arms wrapped around her neck like a clasps. The antics in trying to bag imaginary creatures in the middle of the fight, and then this insanity about being a gargoyle. Everyone assumed the cloak she had put on earlier was cursed and was now responsible for Linda’s behavior. But Kery wasn’t entirely convinced. And now confoundedly, Linda had somehow turned herself invisible to Kery’s eyes and was running in the darkness, heading to who knew where. The child seemed unconcerned with danger, and even less with consequences. So, running away to fulfill some obscure need was probably a random whim that just needed to fulfil. But unfortunate for her, she was both not the sharpest blade in the armory, and not the best with understanding nuance, let alone personal safety. So, while she couldn’t be seen, she also did not keep quiet. But her maniacal laughter wasn’t what made her easy to follow. It was the puffs of dust on the worked flagstone, which announced her presence. Dust like this was a hassle to cover your own tracks, but the thought must never have crossed Linda’s mind. What thought did, however, was a mystery. But Kery was more concerned on getting Linda back under control before she brought the temple’s denizens down on their heads. Earlier she was on the edge of smashing Linda ‘the gargoyle’s’ head on the floor, just because of the pain she caused. It would have been easy; the girl was already wounded. But instead, Claude in the shape of a squirl the size of a bear, swiped at the gargoyle Linda and killed her. It was expediency for him; cursed objects don’t stay attuned to dead things, so he killed Linda. And that had cost Kery a diamond; one she was saving to perhaps buy a cure for her curse. She didn’t know how much that would cost, but she didn’t want to be short on that day either. Kery wasn’t trying to be quiet, the need for swiftness prevented that. So, it wasn’t hard at all to grab Linda from behind and lift the invisible girl off the ground, helpless to escape. Kery held her at arm’s length when she bared her teeth. The Dhampir was ready to slake the thirst awakened from Linda’s clawing earlier. The child continued to run in the air, unable to escape based on how Kery’s arm bounced. Kery could now feel the blood tha pumped through Linda’s small body. A web of life that felt warm and red, pumping quickly in terror. She opened her jaw and was about to draw Linda’s neck to Kery’s fangs, when she stopped. “Gah! How did you find me!” Linda said thrashing uselessly in Keryasa’s grip. There was no hope of her escaping; her tiny body didn’t have the strength to out muscle the larger woman. And even if she did, Kery could easily catch her again and dispatch her without a challenge. But Kery stopped herself. Linda sounded like a scared little girl. Not someone putting on a show, or someone that was drunk and surly, or even dropped at birth. Kery couldn’t see her, she could feel, not just her pounding heart, but she also felt the tiny body quiver in her hands and could hear the sniffles of a nose, overwhelmed with tears. [I]Why am I stopping? She’s going to get herself killed. She’s going to get the others killed. She’s going to get [B]me[/B] killed.[/I] Kery brows furrowed for a moment, and she thought back to the night before Linda became a gargoyle and remembered the innocent question that surprised Kery. “Do you have a mommy?” It had been years since she thought of her. Trapped in the brothel, she could never visit her. At the beginning of her ‘employment,’ she would sometimes she her mom on the streets below, waiting to catch a glimpse of her lost daughter. But the madame found out, and had her ruffians chase her off. Kery would then be savagely beaten with a broom handle afterwards. This went on for a number of times, until finally the madame during a particularly furious beating, threatened Kery; “If you try to wave to her again, she’ll be bait for fish on the next trawler to the Nyr Dyv.” She never looked for her again. She stayed away from the window for years, growing paler and paler from the lack of the sun kissing her skin. She buried her sorrow and pain deep within; and tried to forget any joy of the past. And once she was free, the first thing she had done wasn’t to go to their hovel in the slums. It was to kill those same ruffians that chased her mother away and shank the madam with the broken end of that broom handle. She spent the next two tollings of the clock bell, breaking the queen of whore’s bones and repaying the kindness given to herself. She didn’t stop because her lungs burned; she no longer panted at the exertion. She didn’t stop because her heart was pounding from it either, as her heart was now still. She stopped only because she was satisfied with the results. And from her time stealing and screwing patrons taught her that results were the only thing that mattered. She fled Greyhawk that night, fearing the reprisal of the Madame’s bosses. She fled south, not stopping until the next sunrise, and it was only then did she stop and cry in a dusty barn, at a long abandoned farm on what she lost. “Do you have a mommy?” Even when she met the fairy Bright and they talked, neither talked about family. Just how horrible the Witchlight Carnival was and how the madam of the “Purloined Chastity,” was even worse. But neither wanted to touch the topic of kin. And now with Bright gone, she hadn’t felt the need to talk about the past with anyone else she had met afterwards. So why did Linda ask that question? And why did Keryasa answer it? She didn’t lie about the unintentional estrangement. She said more that evening than she dared to in years. In the brothel, she just lied to herself, and pretended not to have one. It was easier than the pain and longing. It was a memory hidden away in a buried chest, bound in iron, and festooned with locks sealed with molten lead. But Linda’s simple, honest, curious question smashed what barriers there were and that night, for the first time in years, she cried, her tears dripping from the ceiling and hitting the dusty floor. All about the almost forgotten woman she knew loved her, unreservedly, no matter what had befallen her. Her stealing to get them by after father disappeared changed nothing. Her being whored out every night changed nothing. And Keryasa could only imagine that her cursed self would change nothing either. Or so Kery desperately hoped. She held Linda in the air and wondered, was Kery just fortunate to have survived? Was Linda the result when you didn’t? When despair won the battle for your mind and soul? Could have Linda’s life turned out differently? Could it still end differently? Should Kery take that honest hope away from Linda? [CENTER][I][B]<THUMP,THUMP>[/B][/I][/CENTER] Keryasa shook and shuddered for a moment, as her heart stopped once again. It was the first time it had pulsed without drinking the blood of another that she could remember. All without that intoxicating flush, flowing throughout her body. The one made her want, made her desire, made her seek out ways to slake her lusts. But now it left behind a shadow of feeling, of sorrow and remorse. Of pity and compassion. Of care for another. Keryasa closed her open jaws, and felt her canines retract once again. The raw emotions still swirled inside of her, unable to hide from her thoughts. She then closed her eyes for a moment and sighed. Then as gruffly as she could Keryasa said, “Come on. Back to the others.” Holding her invisible quarry in front of her in one hand, she turned on her heel, and marched back to the group. But she did take the time to wipe the tears away, leaving behind the drops in the dust. [B]Session Notes:[/B] Kery is still around, but Bac isn't a bard anymore (now a cleric, as the player hated the lore bard...felt useless and unengaged in combat, and now playing a bard, I get it.) The fairy Bright, has been replaced by (at the time) unrevealed aasimar Hex Blade, and Nahn the Wiser was replaced by Claude Knightly, a druid who's bar tab is legendary. Linda was herself a replacement of the crocodilian riding knight Gala'Chad, who was replacement for a fathom Warlock who died to an ogre. That doesn't even begin to decribe the madness of how the crocodile was actually a cursed dragonborn battlemaster... There was a lot of mood to try experiments, and as a result Kery was the only bit of continuity on why they were in the Temple of Elemental Evil to start with. [/QUOTE]
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